su: cannot open session: Cannot make/remove an entry for the specified session

Symptoms

When running su to switch users, you encounter an error that you cannot open the session and are unable to switch to that user. 

Description 

su: cannot open session: Cannot make/remove an entry for the specified session

Workaround

Verify the home directory for the user is present. If it is not, create and own the directory for the user.

grep <user> /etc/passwd

stat /path/to/home

mkdir /path/to/home

chown user. /path/to/home